"Are We Changed?"
Matthew 17:1-9

“Have We Changed?”
By: Rev. Ken Sauer, Pastor of Parkview United Methodist Church, Newport News, VA www.parkview-umc.org One day, Jesus took Peter and James and John with Him up onto a high mountain, and “There he was transfigured before them.”

The Greek word metamorphothe is translated as ‘transfigured’.

But our understanding of the English word—metamorphosis—as a change or transformation, can be misleading.

In all actuality, the transfiguration of Jesus’ face and clothing was not a change into something new, but rather an uncovering of Who Jesus really is!

Peter, James and John witnessed, if only for a moment, the glory of God revealed in the Son.
This was the true Jesus.

There is a lot of talk these days in theological circles as to—“Who is the Real Jesus?”

Few, if any, folks will dispute the fact that a man named Jesus did indeed walk this earth 2,000 years ago, and through the work of ‘outside sources’, that is, unbiased sources outside of the Bible—like Jewish historians from that time--we know it to be fact that Jesus was indeed crucified under the watch of Pontius Pilate.
And much of the historicity of the Book of Acts is also backed up by other reliable sources as well.

So there can be little doubt that there was a Real Jesus…
…the question that many are asking is Who that Real Jesus is.

This is probably the same thing that the folks who were living during Jesus’ time on earth were asking as well—including the disciples.

In the chapter before this morning’s Lesson Jesus asked His disciples: “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”

They came up with a number of answers.

Then Jesus asked “But what about you? Who do you say that I am?”

“Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Well, Peter was correct…
…but Peter still did not understand exactly what